Tag: #audience

In it’s many forms, an event is a powerful tool to inspire loyalty, to attract new audiences, to engage, or to start a movement. Harnessing the enormous potential of events, requires a cohesive approach to create a “real brand experience”. Without doubt, a winning strategy if meticulously planned and implemented.

Whether you are hosting a global or local event, the key to a favourable outcome is to fuse the brand proposition to the experiences that your audience care about. In other words, evoking sound and emotional responses, happens when the brand promise is tangible through all the aspects of the event.

Meet the audience expectations and needs

Before spending time planning for your event, make sure that your have interested audience. Think like an attendee and identify their reasons and their core needs. Exploring their interests, allows you to tailor your event and ensures that their expectations are inline with your goal. Questions to consider:

Why I need to attend?

What I want to get out of this event?

What kind of format I prefer?

Define your Goal

Ask yourself: What is it that you want to accomplish? Regardless of the event’s type, you should be clear about your goal.

Craft a tagline for your event

It is challenging to communicate in few words your brand promise that differentiates your event. However, following a framework to answer the questions in the brand pyramid, allows you to plan an unforgettable experience.

A vey good example is TED Talks. The non-profit foundation is a global community that provides a platform to exchange ideas, usually in the form of short conferences and distributes through video streaming. Their goal is to spread great ideas. Their videos are educational, inspiring, motivational, funny and give advice. Hence, their tagline is “Ideas worth spreading”.

Define your brand identity

Make sure that your branded event elements are consistent and recognizable:

Logo

Fonts

Colour palette

Visuals

Tone of voice

Remember persuading people to attend your event is about resolving problems, emphasizing on the benefits, powering a trademark by tapping into the five senses. Manage these essentials to create a must attend event.

Generally, people are more inclined to engage with brands that are truly invested to improve social issues. They establish a meaningful connection when the brand’s voice provokes a conversation, signals ethical standards or involves their audience into cause activism. According to the 2017 Edelman Earned Brand Study: ” fifty-seven percent of consumers around the world will buy or boycott a brand solely because of its position on a social or political issue”. This means that a brand can prompt haters or possibly harness advocates by manifesting a point of view, taking a political stand or starting a dialogue.

For that reason, tapping into the subconscious of belief-driven audience, fosters loyalists. On that account, how to connect in a meaningful way? By creating:

Personal and relatable contents

Provoking a conversation

Activating sustainable solutions

Engaging your audience to shape the social movement

Remarkably, each and every referenced approach that offers “empathy”, will be rewarded by consumers.

“People don’t always remember what you say or even what you do, but they always remember how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

Be mindful and remember that Homo Sapiens appreciate being understood. For that matter, recognize the hurt, the desire, the need or the joy. Get to know your audience, send the message that “you get them” and initiate a memorable bonding. Your platform as an individual, profit or non-profit entity is not solely about growing your brand but how to make a difference.

Consider the shaping elements of a good storytelling as a starting point:

What: is the topic, what has happened or will happen: be clear, focused and unveil the matter. Be attentive, the spotlight should be on the issue not on your brand but your shared values.

Who:has been affected

Why:are you taking a stand: acknowledge the importance of the topic and the impact. Avoid mixed messages. Ask open ended questions.

How: can you as a brand and belief-driven audience feed the beast, get involved and have an impact. How to convey your message: contextually or visually based?

When:the development speed of a news, an issue or a talking point is critical in your communication

Where: does your audience absorb information?

The underlying emotion of empathy rooted in your brand’s voice and taking a position in life, strengthens your authority. Individuals with great personal branding such as Tony Robbins interact with their audience with stirring personal stories and the ability to understand their feelings. Brands such as Procter & Gamble, UNICEF tackling social issues or J. Crew blog post “How to get (and dress for) the job you want” are all about making life better for others.

Procter & Gamble’s thought provoking ad called “The Talk”, acknowledges biases and the challenges that black community experience as parents.

Personal or corporate brand storytelling is about being remembered, motivating favourable action, engaging investors or changing perceptions. Simply, communicating your vision through a story allows your audience to be inspired, gain clarity and act with focus. For instance, in an investor relations meeting, by adapting your strategy to a story, you get rid of the complexity of the data which investors can surely find from other sources or lose focus during a presentation. The same applies in personal branding. Your audience will be motivated to engage and support your goal merely because you have made an impression and they will remember you. In whatever capacity, your brand story should remove inconsistency and unreliability.

Message/story: Be wary of the decisive factors in particular the order of your narrative, predisposed outlook of your audience, the appeal and whether the account is clear vs suggested. Recognize the emotions of your audience so that you can organize the flow of your story. For instance in an hostile environment, an impartial approach by giving both sides of the issue encourages active listening. Or, if your goal is to change opinion, painting a rosy & speculative picture is boring and slanted. Yet, introducing antagonists specially dark emotions such as fear to more promising sentiments such as hope and compassion gets people behind you.

You:Your audience will start processing your message in view of the fact that you are knowledgeable, trustworthy, likable such as being a good listener or having a good sense of humour, your poise & neat appearance. Observance of these elements kindles change of perception. Be an expert, know your facts and avoid sluggish tempo when you talk.

Audience:Learn about their primary stance, explore whether they are motivated to accept, their intellectual capacity, their disposition and how much they feel confident about their capabilities. Providing that you are aiming to start an acceptance process and bring about action. People are more inclined to persuasion when the message is clear and intelligibly simple.

In order to stand out from the crowd, form an identity that helps your audience see your differentiation & your accurate point of view. For the most part, zoom in on the future, be clear as what lies ahead and describe your vision. Just like in stock market, people invest in future rather than in the past.